Regional uses of language could take a lifetime and more to study. Funny thing but 'from a distance', they kinda' all sound the same but when a person gets the opportunity to hear two people from different parts of the same region it becomes blindingly clear that accents are actually very local. I am from southern New England and have the normal (for this area) fast, clipped speech without any 'R's 'cause ya' just don't need them and never did. Lots of southerners use our 'R's as extras so it evens out. But while I am usually tagged as being from 'Boston', Bostonian's sound funny to me. Having Chuck introduce himself is amusing 'cause there are an additional 30 or 40 'u's in the middle and it takes a while to say :-)
Sometimes ya' just need context: for example, bobbah could be the guy who cuts your hair or the thing on your fishing line that lets you know when a fish bites.... So for example "Hey, my bobbah is moving" almost certainly means the fishing kind 'cause almost all of our hair cutting bobbahs usually move.
I have really come to appreciate the particular speech patterns of southern Louisiana and some (maybe all?) areas of Tenn. as well. Very gentle, smooth and rhythmic speech
'Ruff', the thing over the house is a dead give-away for a north- central speaker, seemingly centered on Wisconsin or nearby.
I really think that at the end of the day, virtually no region of the US has 'neutral' English speakers and people who work in broadcasting and similar are schooled, sometimes for years, to beat their bad English into something we believe is neutral.
There is a member of COG, and I will not mention Terry's name, who has the most authentic Brooklyn accent you have ever heard. Fantastic to hear him tell a joke.... sometimes, even when he is not joking. He used to work but is now "Reee- toiiiiiiii- ed".
One that got me is what we call soda- some areas call it pop, and some call it soda- pop. But I just found out that there is a swath of the southern US where they call all soda 'Coke' and then ask what kind of 'Coke' you want, such as root beer. Really odd to my ears, 'I'll have a root beer Coke' just does not compute.
And of course the classic: Aunt vs. Aunt. Growing up, a family friend would always ask, whenever someone mentioned an 'Ant', which one, black or red?
Brian
Just to throw another pronunciation iron in the fire, regional mispronunciations that make one word sound like another seem to bother me.
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